Online social media encompasses a wide range of computer network-based sites through which people interact with each other. Two distinct types of online social media include social network sites and online communities. Social network sites are generally based upon direct interpersonal connections, and often interpersonal connections that exist outside of or antecedent to the online realm. For example, sites such as Facebook.com and LinkedIn.com provide communication frameworks that focus on direct personal or professional relationships. In contrast, online communities are generally based upon topics of common interest where community members come together to discuss, share, or learn information about the community topic.
Online communities cover an immense range of topics and have evolved from the earliest days of networked interaction. From online bulletin boards to discussion forums, online communities have been a popular and egalitarian forum for discussing and sharing information and opinions. In this discussion-focused context, online communities have been a predominantly text-based medium. However, one form of online community has evolved that focuses on community members or users sharing links to online sites or online photographs or images that are of interest, rather than being dominated by text-based discussion. This sort of community, sometimes called a content curation site, has been popularized by the general-topic site Pinterest.com. An analogous site directed to fashion-related content is Weheartit.com.
An advantage of online communities configured as content curation sites is that they capture the richness of network-based images for an online community. A disadvantage, however, is that they focus on image and information sources other than the community members. A community member shares a personal interest based upon, or represented by, an online image created by another person.
Accordingly, an online fashion community is provided in which community members provide personal image content as the basis of community interaction. In one implementation, community members provide digital fashion images that include themselves modeling multiple fashion items as an ensemble. Each user also provides information about the multiple fashion items, including information linking to a provider of each fashion item, such as a link to a network site operated by the provider. (The provider may be a manufacturer or a retailer, for example.) In addition, fashion data about the fashion items is obtained. For example, the community member may provide fashion data such as brand, color, style, etc. Alternatively, the community site may obtain the fashion data by a computer automatically accessing the provider network site. In this implementation the community member may be prompted to validate the accuracy of the fashion information retrieved from the provider network site.
Additional aspects and advantages of this online fashion community system and method will be apparent from the following detailed description that proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.